‘Dance to the Music’, and ‘I Want to Take You Higher’, are probably the only Sly and the Family Stone tracks that most younger music lovers today have ever heard, if any, but Sly Stone has been acknowledged as a major influence by some very important musicians, like Michael Jackson, and Miles Davis, Prince, and Herbie Hancock.
By 1970, Sly’s life was fuelled by cocaine, and his happy, positive music of the late 60s became darker in the next few years as he descended into heavy drug dependency, eventually becoming so unreliable as a performer that promoters were no longer willing to book his band. By 1975, it was all over.
Considering that he was so erratic that he missed nearly a third of the band’s other performances in 1970, it was a privilege for all of us to have been there at IOW1970 and to have seen him at close to his best at one of the performances he managed to complete.
Sly & The Family Stone played their regular set such as “M’Lady” and “Sing A Simple Song” and “Music Lover/Higher.” But when they tried to come back for their encore, the radicals had invaded the stage, spewing political nonsense to the audience. The audience booed and threw coke cans, one of which accidentally hit Freddie Stone!! Sly got angry at this and decided to leave the stage. A promise to return later on never materialized.